Jannette Weston Burr (April 30, 1927 – July 26, 2022) was an American former professional
alpine skier
Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...
from
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1406 at the 2010 census, down from 1427 in 2000.U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
Career overview
Burr was born in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
. She began
water skiing
Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffic ...
in the early 1940s, but had not learned how to
alpine ski
''Alpine Ski'' (アルパイン・スã‚一) is an Alpine skiing arcade game, released by Taito in 1981. The player controls a skier, who can move left, right, or increase forward speed. The aim is to maneuver a skier through a downhill ski course ...
until a few years prior to competing professionally. About a year before her first downhill race, Burr went to Sun Valley Ski Resort on a "Learn-to-Ski Week" package, where she found that she enjoyed alpine skiing. She became known as 'Next', the girl who went downhill very fast without turning or slowing down, something that had come as a result of her not knowing how to do these things. In 1950 Sally Neidlinger approached Burr about trying out for the FIS Team along with her. Initially unaware of what the FIS Team was, Burr accompanied Neidlinger and both women won their tryouts. After making the team, Burr went on to win several races on the national and international competition level, eventually making it into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. She also became an instructor at Sun Valley Ski School, where she worked for 37 years. She also appeared in the television series ''
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' for the season one episode "Lucy Goes to Sun Valley", as
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1406 at the 2010 census, down from 1427 in 2000.Downhill
Downhill may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock
* ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse
* ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...
five times throughout her career here.
Winter Olympics
* The
1952 Winter Olympics
The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 6. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 6. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Oslo 1952, was a winter multi-sport event held from 14 to 25 February 195 ...
took place in
Oslo, Norway
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of i ...
.
** Burr competed in the Downhill,
Giant Slalom
Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...
, and
Slalom
To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to:
Sports
;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding
* Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline
* Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline
* Super-G ...
* The 1954 Austrian Ski Championships took place in Bad Gastein, Austria
** Burr won both the Giant Slalom and Downhill but, since she is not Austrian, she was not eligible for the titles.
Arlberg-Kandahar
*The 1954
Garmisch Classic
Garmisch Classic is an alpine ski area in the Bavarian Alps of southern Germany, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria. Its maximum elevation is above sea level at Osterfelderkopf, with a vertical drop of . Other peaks of ski area are the Kre ...
took place in
Bavaria, Germany
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
**Here she placed second in the
combined
Combined may refer to:
* Alpine combined (skiing), the combination of slalom and downhill skiing as a single event
** Super combined (skiing)
* Nordic combined (skiing), the combination of cross country skiing and ski jumping as a single event
* T ...